By FireRescue1 Staff

BALTIMORE — A fire union president is raising a red flag after a startling number of attacks on paramedics.

FOX Baltimore reported that there have been 13 attacks on paramedics over the past 24 months.

"The need for basic protective gear for these medics is clear, but efforts to obtain these items, though they would cost less than $95,000 retail, have fallen on deaf ears at the highest level of the Baltimore City Fire Department," Union President Rick Hoffman said.

Last weekend, a fire commander was shot while offering aid to a crash victim. Earlier this year, two female paramedics were attacked by a naked man outside a medical center campus.

Paramedics are requesting self-defense training as well as ballistic vests.